Carrot Cake
Its Christmas time ! Merry Christmas to all my friends!! Everyone is out and celebrating the fun and holiday week ahead. Though I didn't bake an exact version of Christmas Cake but a small one. I made a ' Carrot and Walnut Cake' with raisins soaked in Rum and topped it with some cream cheese frosting.
It was Yum.....enjoyed it without frosting ........but enjoyed it more with the frosting....!!
The recipe was noted down sometime back from the net but forgot to bookmark it . But it came out to very nice and easy. .........
Ingredients
3 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup golden raisins
Rum to soak raisins
2 eggs
3/ cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup oil ( I used olive oil)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Method
1. Grate carrots. Take 3 cups of grated carrots and mix with brown sugar and let it sit for about an hour.
2. Soak raisins overnight. Combine raisins and carrots. Drain excess liquid.
3. Beat eggs till light in colour.
4. Add sugar, oil and vanilla essence.
5. Mix in apple sauce.
6. Fold in dry ingredients.
7. Add carrot mixture.
8. Add chopped walnuts.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 o C for about an hour or till golden in colour.
To make apple sauce
1. Chop 3-4 apples and pressure cook them till soft.
2. Add 2 tsp of sugar and puree them
Cream cheese frosting
Cream cheese 100 gms
cream 100 gms
orange zest
Beat cream cheese till soft and then add cream. In the end add orange zest.
Bread and Butter Pudding
BBC Good Food 'India' Is Out and I am sure most of my blogger friends have bought their copies and tried a few things from it. November issue carried a few desserts and I am posting here a simple "Bread and Butter Pudding" which I tried and was liked by everyone.
I could not find unsliced bread so had to go ahead with the sliced one. I made half the recipe given in the magazine.
Ingredients
Butter 45 gms
Jam 200gms ( I used mixed fruit jam as kids love its taste)
Fresh white bread 5 slices
eggs 2
heavy cream 200 ml ( I used amul fresh cream)
milk 200ml
powdered sugar 45 gms
vanilla seeds scrapped from 1 vanilla pod
Method
1. Butter a casserole and put half the jam in the base of the dish.
2. Trim the sides od the slices and press them a little with a rolling pin.
3. Apply butter on one side of the slice, turn it and apply jam on the other side.
4. Roll the slice lightly keeping the jam side inside. Place them in the casserole.
5. Beat eggs, cream , sugar and milk and pass through a sieve.
6. Add the vanilla seeds and pour over the slices soaking them fully.
7. Bake at 180 o C for about an hour until the top gets a golden colour.
Date and Walnut Cake
Ahhh! Writing a new post after a long time.....Has been so busy for past few days in marriages and other things. ..Posting a quick but easy and very tempting eggless cake recipe.....'Dates and Walnut Cake'....It came out so well and tasted even better.....The only thing you have to keep in mind is choosing a good quality of dates to get a rich, moist cake.
Ingredients
- 200 gms dates deseeded and chopped
- 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
- 200 gms condensed milk
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 baking soda
- 1 - 2 tsp milk (if required)
- Method
- 1. Dee seed dates and chop them finely.
- 2. Take 1/2 cup of water (approx) in a pan and put on the flame. When the water starts boiling add the dates.
- 3. Keep them on low flame for 2 mins and then switch off the flame.
- 4. Add baking soda and keep it aside to cool.
- 5. Sift maida and baking powder together..
- 6. Mix in dates and walnuts.
- 7. Beat oil and condensed milk with a hand mixer. Add essence.
- 8. Fold in maida mixture and mix properly.
- 9. Pour the batter in a 9" loaf tin and bake at 180 o C for 40 mins or till done.
- Note : 1. You can substitute 2 eggs and 3/4 powdered sugar with condensed milk if using eggs.
- 2. The above cake will have chunks of dates in it. If you don't want chunks you can soak them over night or 5-6 hrs in half cup of milk and puree them in a mixer. Use 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and remove baking soda from the list.
Fudgy Chocolate Brownies
Brownies are everybody's favorite. Whenever there is mention of brownies, Chocolate is the first thing that come is mind. Brownies have very basic ingredients like butter, sugar, flour, eggs and chocolate , yet the results are variable if you change the proportions. The Brownie can be 'cake like', 'nutty' or 'fudgy'. ....Tips from Diana Desserts helped me a lot to understand and make perfect brownies.....
http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/bakingtips.Brownies/Brownies.cfm
There is nothing as delicious as biting into a freshly baked brownie..and today I am making 'Fudgy Brownies'....The recipe is simple...the ingredients are very basic and the texture when it came was really fudgy and very chocolaty....
Ingredients
350 gms of dark chocolate (chopped)
1/2 cup butter ( approx 115 gms)
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt and baking powder
Method
1. Melt chocolate and butter in a microwave bowl.
2. Sift Flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Whisk eggs and sugar.
4. Add the chocolate mixture and add vanilla extract.
5. Fold in flour.
6. Line an 8"square tin with butter paper and pour the batter in the tin.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 o C for about 40 minutes.
8. Cool overnight and consume next day.
" 
Cream of Almond Soup
The winters have started approaching and the mornings and evenings are cool outside and pleasant inside. With the change of every season our food interests and habits also change. This is the season of having hot soups, variety of greens and different kinds of breads of Indian cuisine. Today, I am making a very simple Cream of Almond Soup which is very delicate in flavours , but at the same time very tasty and nutritious .
Ingredients
200 gms almonds
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups of milk
salt
black pepper
Method
1. Soak almonds in water for about 4-5 hours.
2. Take off the skin of almonds and blend them to a puree adding a little water. Strain the almond puree and keep it aside.
3. Take butter in a pan and add flour in it.
( u can also use all purpose flour or corn flour)
4. Saute it for a couple of minutes. Put the gas at the minimum and and start adding milk gradually. Keep on stirring continuously. There should not be any lumps.
5. Let the white sauce cool completely and blend it in the mixer to give it a smooth consistency.
6. Put it back on a pan and put on the gas.
7. Add the almond puree and add salt and pepper according to your taste.
8. Add 2 cups of water and boil it for a few minutes.
8. Garnish it with slivered almonds and a few basil leaves.
7. Serve it hot with toasted garlic bread.
